Wednesday, 18 November 2015

Sketching at British Museum : Barkcloth Spirit Masks

Yesterday on ' Drawing Tuesday', we returned to the Barkcloth exhibition at the British Museum. Having seen the exhibition several times now, I knew what I wanted to concentrate on which was these three monsters ( or spirit masks )

I started off with a very quick sketch with a large graphite stick to work out basic shapes then started with pencil to work out the elipses of this beast. Lots of rubbing out ( the patterning was added with pen)

What interested me most were the contrasting lines in this mask - the sharp spines of it's snout compared with the organic shapes of the grasses/ fibres. I used several techniques - scoring in the paper with metal wire then rubbing over with graphite ; 2h and 4b pencil lines; graphite stick; eraser ( Tombow 2.5 x 5mm).

I liked the effects I achieved - I'm aiming to draw from a blown -up version of this photo to really observe what's going on.

No time to attempt the 3rd mask (' Cousin It') before well-deserved lunch ( salad and Portuguese custard tart) . Then I braved the wind and rain to go to the Courtauld Gallery for glider paintings of Peter Lanyon - reduced entry with my ArtPass . Just 2 rooms but spent a long time absorbing their atmosphere. Wonderful. ﻿